Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

Inspired by this breathtaking atmosphere, Kent completed their season with a three-wicket win and claimed an unbeaten record. After Canterbury Week, Fuller went up to Nottingham for the recently retired Thomas Barker’s benefit match on 9, 10 and 11 August, and played in a very weak England team that lost by ten wickets. Then it was time to join Clarke’s All-England Eleven at Leicester against Twenty of Leicestershire on 12, 13 and 14 August. But he was expected back at Canterbury for the East Kent Club and Ground return game with South London on 16 and 17 August and, before catching up with the All-England tourists, he also made a trip to Bury to play for Bury and Suffolk in the return game against MCC where he top-scored with 15 out of 49 in the second innings in a failed attempt to prevent an innings victory by MCC. Then he rejoined All-England for the game at York against Eighteen of Yorkshire on 23, 24 and 25 August, followed by four matches at Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield between 26 August and 7 September against odds, respectively, of eighteen, twenty-two, sixteen and eighteen. Fuller didn’t stay for the next fixture at Leeds starting on 9 September, deciding to break away to link up with his brother William on the same dates to help Norfolk beat MCC and made top score of the match in the first innings with 41, and then the second highest score in the second with 29 not out, facing Lillywhite and Hillyer at their best, who took 19 of 98 The new St Lawrence Ground A fictional match. This is the key plate to the well-known lithograph of a ‘match’ played at Ireland’s Ground, Brighton between Sussex and Kent in about 1847, showing Pilch with his contemporaries. The figures shown, with Sussex fielding, are left to right: E.Napper (51), C.Hawkins (52), C.G.Taylor (53), J.Dean (50), T.Box (wk, 48), F.Pilch (batting, 47), J.Hodson (58), E.G.Wenman (46), F.W.Lillywhite (bowling, 44), W.H.Caldecourt (umpire, 45), J.Bayley (umpire, 56), Hon H.C.Lowther (56), R.Picknell (55), G.Brown and R.Cheeseman (scorers, 60 and 59). St Peter’s Church is in the background.